• Outrage, sadness as Americans barred from adopting Russian children

    NBC News

    Sonia greets her new parents, Kristina and Rich England.

    By Jim Maceda, Correspondent, NBC News

    BRYANSK, Russia -- Kristi and Rich England of Marshall, Minn., shook with nerves and joy on their fourth and last trip to an orphanage in Bryansk, in rural Russia.  

    They were finally taking Sonia, a partially blind and hyperactive 3-year-old, home with them. The tearful Feb. 12 meeting, punctuated by Sonia’s screams of “mama” and “dada,” was all the more emotional because the Englands knew that they were the last lucky couple to leave Russia with an adopted child. 

    “So many other families have seen their children and have loved their children and can’t bring them home,” said Kristi England, 34, a family doctor. “It’s so unfair in so many ways.”

    Those already undergoing the costly process of adopting a child from Russia found out Russian president Vladimir Putin signed a law barring any future adoptions, canceling the ones in progress. NBC's Kerry Sanders reports.

    The process wasn’t easy – the Englands endured multiple background checks and spent at least $50,000 to ensure that Sonia, now called Sophia, could go home with them.

    But the ban signed into law on Dec. 28 barring all U.S. adoptions – which numbered more than 60,000 over the past two decades – has marooned hundreds of families in the middle of adopting, and stranded thousands of children in orphanages throughout Russia.  

    "We should do all we can so that orphaned children find a family in our country, in Russia," President Vladimir Putin said in defense of the ban.

    Fueling the outrage in Russia over the fate of children adopted by Americans, Russian media reported earlier this week that Alexander Abnosov, 18, showed up in the Volga River port town of Cheboksary saying his adoptive family had mistreated him. He had left Russia five years earlier, having been adopted by a family outside Philadelphia, but said he fled after suffering from verbal abuse by his adoptive mother.  

    "She would make any small problem big and always try to find a reason to shout at you," he told Russia’s state-owned Channel 1.

    While UNICEF estimates there are about 740,000 children not in parental custody in Russia, only about 18,000 Russians are on the waiting list to adopt. 

    But while Putin denies any direct connection, Kremlin-watchers say the ban is really about geopolitics and not about protecting kids.

    NBC News

    Russian child psychologist Valentina Rakova Valentina (left) stands with Kristina and Richard England and newly adopted Sonia in an orphanage in Bryansk, rural Russia.

    They say it was retaliation by Moscow for an American law banning any Russian human rights violators from U.S. soil, enacted after the suspicious death in prison of Sergey Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer working for Heritage Fund, an American private equity firm. 

    Russian media didn't hesitate to bolster the official line.  

    Despite the negative reports, child psychologist Valentina Rakova, who has worked in the Bryansk orphanage for 30 years, says the ban is terrible for children. 

    “Here in Russia we have many examples of bad parents -- even worse than these American cases -- where kids are just tossed out,” she said as she coiffed Sonia, who requires special medical attention.

    “A child like Sonia, no Russian would accept her,” Rakova said. “Before the ban, orphans were offered to Russian families but no one took them in.” 

    Rakova's experience confirms the U.N.'s statistics. As far as she has seen, Americans are far more likely to adopt children who are ill or suffer from a disability.

    Becky Preece, a housewife from Nampa, Idaho, is one such American.  

    She was finally able to take home 4-year-old Gabe, who has Down syndrome, in February, after years of filling out paperwork and a court battle.  

    Preece, who like the Englands beat the ban by days but was then delayed by red tape, said she saw a complete disconnect between the horrors of Russia’s adoption ban and the kindness and hospitality of the Russians themselves. 

    NBC News

    Becky Preece from Nampa, Idaho, adopted 4-year-old Gabe just days before the ban on Americans adopting Russian orphans went into force.

    “It’s not a matter of the people,” she said while walking with the little boy in the thick Moscow snow.

    “It’s politically charged and it’s something that is hard for us to understand because it’s so different from the experience that we’ve had here.”

    Preece said she was excited to get Gabe into school back home, and watch him bond with his new brother who also has Down syndrome. 

    “They need the infrastructure, they need the kind of support that we get at home for our children,” she said. 

    But for the hundreds of American families who missed the cut and are now unable to bring their adoptive children home, the future could mean months -- even years -- of waiting and praying that the two superpower rivals find common ground before more of society’s most vulnerable pay the price.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

    Jim Maceda is a London-based correspondent who has covered the Soviet Union and Russia since the 1980s. 

    Related:

    Boy's Christmas wish: Adoption of little brother caught in US-Russia spat

    Thousands march in Moscow to protest Russian adoption ban


     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Afghan orphans hope their music will win over 'American hearts' at Carnegie Hall

    In a country where the arts and music suffered heavily under the Taliban, young musicians — including dozens of girls — are representing the potential in Afghanistan's future.

    By Thanh Truong, Correspondent, NBC News

    KABUL, Afghanistan - From the cold basement of an orphanage in Kabul, the beat of a bass drum bounces through the halls.

    Hitting the high hat and cymbals was Laila, a 13-year old orphan and the only known female drummer in Afghanistan. 

    "I like playing the drums and there are no other girls in Afghanistan playing the drums,” Laila said with a big smile. “I'm the only girl and I want to become well known as an Afghan girl playing drums.”

    For now, she plays in a basement, but soon it'll be D.C.'s Kennedy Center and New York's Carnegie Hall. 

    Laila and 10 other girls from her orphanage will be joining ensembles from the Afghan National Institute of Music as they make their U.S. debut. 

    For many of the performers, it will be their first time out of the country and their first time in America. 

    "I hear it is very clean and has big buildings and you have such freedom there,” 10-year old Sapna said. "I forget the name of the president of America, but I have heard of him."

    Sapna plays the piano and likes the "fast songs" that allow her to move her little fingers quickly over the keys. 

    As the security in Afghanistan crumbles, 'Nightly' returns to an orphanage that Brian Williams first visited in 2009 to find girls with big dreams who are focused on getting into college.

    Music is part of the curriculum at this orphanage run by Andeisha Farid, the executive director of the Afghan Child Education and Caring Organization. 

    'Hope for a better future'
    In a country where female freedoms are few, Farid said these young girls represent the potential in Afghanistan's future.

    "Afghan women, they suffer so badly. They even struggle for their very basic human rights,” Farid said. “We hope for a better future for Afghanistan. If we can properly invest in these children, a long-term investment, they realize that there is hope in Afghanistan.”

    The sheer fact that dozens of girls are practicing and learning music is a sign of progress in a country where only an estimated 15 percent of women can even read and write, never mind read music or play an instrument.

    The arts and music suffered heavily under the Taliban, and not just for women. 

    Oct. 30: Brian swaps eyewear with one of the girls at the Kabul orphanage.

    Since 2001 a small group of Afghans have worked to bring music back to the country. Ahmad Sarmast, who holds a doctorate in music, spearheaded the movement and the effort culminated in the 2010 establishment of the Afghan National Institute of Music. 

    Musicians and their mentors from the ANIM will embark on a two-week tour of the U.S. starting February 2. They'll be playing a combination of classical and Afghan pieces.

    Music has given these children an opportunity that so few have in Afghanistan and they are eager to share what they've learned.

    "People can understand each other's hearts through music. American people can understand Afghan hearts and Afghans can understand American hearts. It's universal," said Sapna.

    Yet, hurdles remain. 

    Oct. 30 2009: Andeisha Farid is making a difference in a dangerous place, providing a safe haven in Afghanistan. NBC's Brian Williams reports.

    Twelve-year-old Fareshta said pressure from her home village prevented her from playing the trumpet.

    NBC first met Fareshta when Brian Williams visited her orphanage.

    Fareshta said people in her village threatened to make her family outcasts if she kept on attending music school. 

    She now only plays when she is in the orphanage. And, while the other girls prepare for their performances in the U.S., she won't be going. 

    "I want to go music school and play more music," Fareshta said.

    She shrugged when asked if it all seemed unfair. After all, so much that has and is happening in Afghanistan seems unfair.

    But after listening to a girl like Laila practicing on the drums, it is easy to understand that the music these young people create is a message of hope in a country awash with disappointments. 

    Related: 

    Tears of joy: The moment an Afghan teen learned of Oscar nomination

    Steeple, cross at U.S. Army base on Afghan frontier raise hackles

    Afghanistan: Where actresses risk their lives for their art

  • Putin signs law banning American adoptions

    Those already undergoing the costly process of adopting a child from Russia found out Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law barring any future adoptions, canceling the ones in progress. NBC's Kerry Sanders reports.

    By NBC News staff and wire reports

    President Vladimir Putin signed a law on Friday that bans Americans from adopting Russian children and imposes other measures in retaliation for new U.S. legislation meant to punish Russian human rights abusers.

    The law, which has ignited outrage among Russian liberals and children's rights advocates, enters into force on Jan. 1 and is likely to strain U.S.-Russia relations.

    As well as banning U.S. adoptions, it will also outlaw some non-governmental organizations that receive U.S. funding and impose a visa ban and asset freeze on Americans accused of violating the rights of Russians abroad.

    The law could block dozens of Russian children expected to be adopted by American families from leaving the country and cut off one of the main international routes for Russian children to leave orphanages that are often dismal. Russia is the single biggest source of adopted children in the United States, with more than 60,000 Russian children being taken in by Americans over the past two decades.

    The bill is retaliation for an American law that calls for sanctions against Russians deemed to be human rights violators and part of an increasingly confrontational stance by the Kremlin against the West.

    Related: Americans may lose right to adopt Russian children


    Putin said U.S. authorities routinely let Americans suspected of violence toward Russian adoptees go unpunished — a clear reference to Dima Yakovlev, a Russian toddler for whom the bill is named. The child was adopted by Americans and then died in 2008 after his father left him in a car in broiling heat for hours. The father was found not guilty of involuntary manslaughter.

    Children's rights ombudsman Pavel Astakhov on Wednesday said that 46 children who were about to be adopted in the United States would remain in Russia if the bill came into effect. On Thursday, he petitioned the president to extend the ban to other countries.

    Courtesy Thomas family

    John and Renee Thomas with their son, Jack, 7, who was adopted from Russia at the age of 3. Jack is hoping for his brother, Nikoly, now in a Russian orphanage, to join him in the United States.

    Would-be adoptive parents in the United States are left hanging by Putin's signing of the bill, which was passed by Russian lawmakers last week.

    Among them are John and Renee Thomas of Minnetonka, Minn., Kari Huus of NBC News reported. The Thomases have already adopted Jack, 7, from Russia. When they found out he had a little brother, they began the process to try to adopt him, too. The wait has stretched to four years, and now the adoption may be in danger. 

    "When Jack is asked about his family, he talks about his brother," John Thomas said. "He always asks, 'When is he coming home?' We just tell him we’re waiting for the call."

    More: Adoption of little brother caught in US-Russia spat

    UNICEF estimates that there are about 740,000 children without parental custody in Russia, while only 18,000 Russians are now waiting to adopt a child.

    Russian President Vladamir Putin has said he'll sign a proposed law that would halt adoptions of Russian children to Americans. NBC's Duncan Golestani reports.

    The U.S. State Department on Thursday repeated its opposition to the Russian measure.

    "The welfare of children is simply too important to tie to the political aspects of our relationship," State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said. "Additionally, we are deeply troubled by the provisions in the bill that would restrict the ability of Russian civil society organizations to work with American partners."  

    Critics of the bill left dozens of stuffed toys and candles outside the parliament's lower and upper houses to express solidarity with Russian orphans. 

    An online petition urging the Kremlin to scrap the bill garnered more than 100,000 Russian signatures. 

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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  • Boy's Christmas wish: Adoption of little brother caught in US-Russia spat

    Courtesy Thomas family

    John and Renee Thomas with their son, Jack, 7, who was adopted from Russia at the age of 3. Jack is hoping for his brother, Nikoly, now in a Russian orphanage, to join him in the United States.

    By Kari Huus, NBC News

    This Christmas, the best gift 7-year-old Jack Thomas could get would be the arrival of his little brother, Nikoly, who lives in an orphanage in Kursk, Russia.


    "When Jack is asked about his family, he talks about his brother," said his father, John Thomas, speaking from the family’s home in Minnetonka, Minn. "He always asks, 'When is he coming home?' We just tell him we’re waiting for the call."

    Jack has been waiting several years, a long time for a little boy. What he doesn’t know is that a feud between politicians in Moscow and Washington could destroy his chance to grow up with his brother.

    On Friday, Russian lawmakers passed a bill that would prohibit Americans from adopting Russian children, and if that bill is signed into law by President Vladimir Putin, it would cast doubt on even those adoptions already in the pipeline.

    For John Thomas and his wife, Renee — and very likely hundreds of other expectant American families and Russian children — the latest political shift could mean a delay, a new hurdle or a brick wall.

    The U.S. State Department and some high-level officials in Moscow have lambasted the legislation as punishing Russian children who need families in an effort to retaliate against Washington.

    But the bill has gained ground amid a wave of nationalism, fueled by anger over a U.S. human rights bill singling out Russia and by several highly publicized cases of U.S. adoptions that ended tragically.

    Since the end of the Soviet era in 1991, Americans have adopted about 60,000 children from Russia, making it one of the main countries of origin for non-domestic adoptions in the United States, according to U.S. government statistics. At the peak of the trend in 2004, Americans brought 5,862 children into their homes. In 2011, the number was down to 962 — a product of well-intentioned policy shifts, bureaucracy, corruption and other difficulties.

    See the US Action Plan on Children in Adversity

    European Children Adoption Services

    Jack Thomas, at the age of 3, just before he was adopted from Kursk, Russia, by Americans John and Renee Thomas. He is now 7 years old and growing up in an affluent suburb of Minneapolis.

    Even with foreign adoptions, which are allowed after giving Russians priority, Russia has an estimated 700,000 children living in institutions, nearly 80,000 of them orphaned, and the rest abandoned or taken away by the state because the parents were judged unfit to take care of them.

    The Thomases have experienced the painful, stop-start nature of the Russian adoption process in their quest for Nikoly.

    It was in December 2008, when they were finalizing their adoption of 3-year-old Eduard, whom they named Jack, that they learned he had a baby brother. They started the adoption application process for Nikoly as soon as they could, after a required waiting period.

    Compliments of the Thomas family

    Renee Thomas in December 2010 meeting Nikoly at an orphanage in Kursk, Russia. He was 18 months old at the time, and Thomas says she expected he would join the the family within a matter of months. Nikoly is now 4 and remains in institutional care in Russia.

    A year later, John and Renee Thomas, who work as an attorney and a building contract negotiator, again flew to Moscow and then went by rail to Kursk to meet Nikoly, whom they call Theodore or Teddy. He was 18 months old. Renee Thomas says she thought it would take about the same amount of time to adopt him as it had with Jack, and expected to travel to Kursk sometime in the spring of 2010 to get him.

    The Thomases are still waiting.

    One of the reasons for delay, they say, is the horror caused by a woman in Tennessee who put her 7-year-old son, whom she had adopted in Russia, on a one-way flight to Moscow in 2010, with the explanation that the child was "mentally unstable" and she could no longer take care of him.

    In another delay that Renee Thomas believes cost their adoption another year, the Russian government shut down adoptions for review and re-accreditation of all adoption agencies that work in Russia.

    European Children Adoption Services

    Nikoly in an undated photo taken at an orphanage in Kursk, Russia. (The red splotches on his face are believed to be a type of antiseptic.)

    In addition, the Thomas’ dossier has gone before a series of judges in Russia, some of whom have rejected it without a stated reason, and others setting forth requirements that they are not able to meet under U.S. law. Even so, there are Russians trying to help them run the gauntlet, and they figured the problems would get ironed out.

    "We expected to be traveling soon" to get Nikolai, said John Thomas.  

    Just last month, when a newly negotiated bilateral adoptions agreement came into effect, designed to smooth out the process and help safeguard adopted children, things appeared to be looking up.

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    "These adoptive parents have really been through the ringer," said Johnson. "This was a bilateral treaty signed by our two governments. We really celebrated it. I thought we could turn our attention to other countries. But we’re really back to Russia again."

    Kids pay in human rights spat
    The ban that passed the Russian parliament grew out of a dispute over human rights.

    On Nov. 16, the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act passed by a landslide in the U.S. House and Senate. Magnitsky was a 37-year-old lawyer who exposed massive fraud allegedly committed by a group of Russian officials. He was arrested and died in police custody 11 months later under suspicious circumstances. Among other things, the bill denies visas and freezes assets of the Russian officials implicated by Magnitsky.

    The new U.S. law sparked an angry reaction from Moscow and fueled popular anti-American sentiment.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin claims the U.S. is "poisoning ties" between the two countries with a law that bans Russians who abuse human rights and is backing a Russian draft law banning adoption by Americans. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.

    Vladimir Putin said that the law singling out Russia "contaminates our relations."

    Russian legislators then drafted a bill to counter the U.S. law, with provisions restricting organizations and individuals linked to the United States.

    Just before the first vote in the Duma, the proposed ban on American adoptions of Russian children was tacked on as an amendment. The legislation was named after 21-month-old Dima Yakovlev, a Russian boy who died in Virginia after his adoptive father left him alone in a hot SUV for nine hours.

    Americans may lose right to adopt Russian kids

    After the Duma approved the legislation on Friday, the U.S. State Department registered its disapproval.

    "If Russian officials have concerns about the implementation of (the adoption) agreement, we stand ready to work with them to improve it and remain committed to supporting inter-country adoptions between our two countries," said acting State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell. "The welfare of children is simply too important to be linked to political aspects of our relationship."

    The bill is now heading for Putin’s desk for his signature.

    Compliments of the Thomas family

    John Thomas and his son, Jack, who was adopted from Russia at the age of 3, in an undated picture taken at their home in Minnetonka, Minn.

    Opponents of the ban are still hoping that the president will veto the bill, despite his comments while campaigning for re-election that U.S. adoptions should no longer be allowed. More recently he has remained silent on the issue.

    Over the past week, Russian opponents of the ban have launched petitions and small protests at the parliament building, and several high-level officials have registered strong opposition to it, including Russia’s foreign minister and education minister.

    Johnson of the National Council for Adoption says he’s hoping the domestic opposition will dissuade Putin from signing the adoption ban into law.

    "One good thing that’s happening … is a movement brought on by Russian citizens and the foreign minister who has spoken out against this legislation … saying it’s not the right way to stick it to America,” he said. "Hopefully more politicians will feel comfortable speaking out."

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    Barring that, he said, he hopes Russia will at least make provisions to finalize the adoptions that are already in process.

    "There is a precedent … to negotiate pipeline cases," he said, citing examples in Guatemala and Kyrgystan. "But given the animosity that Russians feel towards this, I hope that’s not a conversation we have to have."

    For the Thomases, despite politics, the adoption effort is now in overdrive. They understand that Nikoly, who turned 4 in June, could be moved at any time — and in fact may have been moved already to a Russian institution for children as old as 18.

    "That's major," said John Thomas. "That's where bad things start to happen."

    For Renee Thomas, her greatest fear is that the boys will not be allowed to grow up together. But she tries to stay positive for Jack.

    "This morning as I was making him breakfast, he said 'Mom, wouldn't it be great if we woke up Christmas morning and Santa left presents and Teddy under the tree?' My response was 'Let's hope for next year.'"

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  • Rebuilding of ghost town offers hope in Swaziland, a nation of orphans

    Stephane De Sakutin / AFP - Getty Images

    A nurse plays with a child in an orphanage in Bulembu, Swaziland, on March 1, 2012. [Pictures made available March 23]

    Agence France-Presse reports — Lost in the mountains of Swaziland, Bulembu became a ghost town when the local mine closed, cutting off its lifeblood. Now the town is coming back, centered on an orphanage taking in children whose parents have often died of AIDS.

    Stephane De Sakutin / AFP - Getty Images

    The old miners' houses in Bulembu have been fixed up to house orphans, their caregivers, and other employees.

    Swaziland has the world's highest rate of HIV infection, with at least one in four adults carrying the virus. A crushing financial crisis has left the tiny southern African monarchy struggling to pay for medicines and for orphans' education.

    About 120,000 children have been orphaned in Swaziland, comprising more than 10 percent of the total population. Those startling statistics inspired Canadian entrepreneur Volker Wagner to buy the entire town of Bulembu in 2006, five years after it was abandoned.

    He has created a private community, a sort of "Christian kolkhoz", which is developing around the orphanage that now houses 303 children, aged from two weeks to 21 years. Continue reading.

    Stephane De Sakutin / AFP - Getty Images

    Workers renovate the old miners' houses in Bulembu.

    Stephane De Sakutin / AFP - Getty Images

    Pupils drawing during a school lesson.

    Stephane De Sakutin / AFP - Getty Images

     

  • China to ban names that signal 'orphan' status

    An orphanage in Wuhu, in eastern China's Anhui province in Aug. 2009.

    By Kari Huus, NBC News

    Institutions in China that care for orphans will no longer be allowed to name children in their care in ways that signal their parentless status, a government ministry said this week, according to a report in the state-controlled China Daily.

    The Ministry of Civil Affairs plans to issue new regulations set of rules to prohibit orphanages from using naming conventions that make it easy for other Chinese speakers to guess that an individual is an orphan—leading to lifelong stigma.

    The article explains that some institutions named children in their care for where they were abandoned. Others gave children the surname “Guo” or “Dang”— to indicate the child was in care of the “State” or “Party.”

    "We don't want children who grow up in orphanages to carry labels that imply they are different from those who have parents," Chen Luann, a children's welfare worker told the newspaper.

    The new regulations will require that orphans be given surnames chosen from among the 100 most common Chinese family names.

    According to Zhang Hiring, with a nongovernmental group aimed at helping the country’s orphans, it was a step in the right direction: "This move shows the government is paying more attention to these children's psychological needs, which helps their development."

    There are about 100,000 orphans living in about 900 orphanages and children’s homes, the article said, citing government statistics.

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